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Comment by g42gregory | Hacker News Reader

Well, he is definitely upsetting some (many) people. But, at the same time, he is getting the new set of people as users. In the last few years, I would not touch Twitter with a ten-foot pole. Mostly because, I could no longer assess the provenance of the posts and the authenticity of their rankings. Is this post popular/important or is this post was put into my stream by Twitter/other entities in order to influence me? I don't like being manipulated so brazenly.

Now, with the new management, I find myself going to Twitter more and more often. I disagree with many posts and I do not like many posts, but now, I could have some assurance that I am getting an authentic information.

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> Mostly because, I could no longer assess the provenance of the posts and the authenticity of their rankings.

How are you doing that now?

> Is this post popular/important or is this post was put into my stream by Twitter/other entities in order to influence me? I don't like being manipulated so brazenly.

Bad news: Musk is doing plenty of that. https://www.theverge.com/2023/2/14/23600358/elon-musk-tweets...

I'm curious why you think Twitter is suddenly authentic and non-manipulative? If anything, it seems worse -- less news more hate.

It feels like a wasteland. But then the tech accounts all left for mastodon. All I am left with is weird cycle rage cringe. That I try so desperately to not interact with.

Over on Japanese Twitter, the sudden shift in the kinds of post getting recommended pre- and post- Musk layoffs were undeniable. No longer were political posts the recommendations, but rather cultural posts such as those concerning games, anime, and manga among others.

Most of the Japanese user base welcomed the change, amazed at just how much manipulation Twitter Japan was (or is) doing behind the scenes.

Twitter had de facto commissars in every region that coordinated with their contacts at various activist networks to ensure everyone was coordinated. Musk broke that wheel.

Twitter in the USA is noticeably better too. A few people left but no one cares. So many more interesting voices have been raised.

I deleted my Twitter account long before Musk took over it because Twitter has always been a outrage capital.

I’m not sure why it is now fashionable to see many techies here scream about it now after tolerating the years of garbage that has proliferated on the site. It is likely has something to do with the layoffs which can cause many to become highly emotional of all their reasoning.

The network effect of 220M+ users do not care and are still sitting on the platform as predicted with the alternatives failing to challenge Twitter and failing to surpass Twitter at all.

>It is likely has something to do with the layoffs which can cause many to become highly emotional of all their reasoning.

It's just the pendulum finally swinging the other way (as was foretold) and the people concerned becoming appalled with the realization they now have to drink their own kool-aid.

It's not unlike what happened when journalists, who told people who lost their jobs to go and "learn to code", were told to go and "learn to code" when they in turn lost their jobs.

Basically, these people can dish out but can't take.

Any smart bystander who witnesses these things would do well to take away the need for prudence in one's statements and desires. The pendulum swings with absolute apathy.

> but now, I could have some assurance that I am getting an authentic information

How ? And how is this different than before ?

I've fallen back to mostly just using the Recent (Following) tab, which means I miss a lot, but at least it's mostly relevant. I'll often search on a topic that I see on my youtube channels that I want to dig into.

My biggest complaint, is that even paying for it, you still see (a lot og) ads... I'd be happier paying for it, and getting no ads than the blue checkmark. Also, the UX on the post delay/edit with blue is annoying as hell.

Wait, what? This made no sense.

I was trying to formulate a response, but I can’t top “wait what?”

In what way is Elon Musk not brazenly manipulating Twitter? It's certainly a different flavor of manipulation, but his management certainly isn't a great counterexample.

That would make sense, if you had your pants and shirt on backward.

Musk has introduced several high profile changes to corrupt "the authenticity of their rankings" - what on earth are you talking about regarding "authentic information" given the person running the place is a known and repeated liar, whose lied directly about his management decisions regarding the property you've mostly recently started liking?

Seriously, what?

Please refrain from directly attacking other HN users - it does not contribute to discussion. The guidelines can be found here: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

As for the content of your post, users who have subscribed to Twitter Blue are more likely to be engaged with and invested in the platform, leading to wanting it to succeed. The additional verification markers for businesses also helps.

> users who have subscribed to Twitter Blue are more likely to be engaged with and invested in the platform, leading to wanting it to succeed

Superfans are less credible/trustworthy, not more.

Agree to disagree then. If I had the money to subscribe, then I'm monetarily invested in the content and the platform as whole - otherwise I have the market power to withdraw my subscription and make that known to the service.

Could you please stop posting in the flamewar style to HN? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

Personal attacks and swipes are particularly unwelcome, so please make sure to edit those out of your comments if any do make it in.

This is hilarious, Elon Musk himself spreads random nonsense such as the rumours about Nancy Pelosi's husband's lover.

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